West Indies announce the T20I provisional squad led by Kieron Pollard for a blockbuster home summer comprising 15 T20 Internationals.
On Tuesday, the Cricket West Indies revealed a provisional squad for the home summer, which includes visits from South Africa, Australia and Pakistan. Andre Russell and Shimron Hetmyer make their way back into the side with the T20 World Cup lined up later this year.
Russell, one of the biggest T20 superstars in the world, last played for Windies in March 2020 in Sri Lanka. Hetmyer, who was dropped from the team due to poor fitness, had last represented the team in New Zealand due to poor fitness.
Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell and Hayden Walsh Jr are also back in the side. Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo have retained their places, while Sunil Narine is the only notable exclusion. Wicket-keeper batter Nicholas Pooran has retained his position as the vice-captain.
“These upcoming T20Is are crucial in terms of our preparation for the T20 WC. We have assembled a very solid squad with experienced world-class match-winners and some exciting young talented players, ready to explode onto the global stage and do great things for West Indies cricket,”
West Indies head coach Phil Simmons stated.
“We are at that point where we have identified those who we will look to be the core of the squad to defend our World Cup title, so we want to make sure the upcoming matches create that environment.
We won five years ago, so the next few weeks and months will be major stepping stones on the road towards defending our title and being World Champions for a third time,”
he concluded.
West Indies have a packed schedule lined up, where they will play a total of 15 T20Is against SA, Australia and Pakistan.
They will kick start their preparation for the T20 World Cup with a five-match series against South Africa, starting June 26.
They will then take on Australia between July 9 to July 16, followed by the third five-match series against Pakistan from July 27 to August 3.
